Our Team

Prof. D. Prabhakaran

Professor Prabhakaran is a cardiologist and epidemiologist by training. He is an internationally renowned
researcher and is currently the Vice President- Research & Policy, Public Health Foundation of India, Executive
Director of Centre for Chronic Disease Control, New Delhi, India and Professor (Epidemiology) London School
of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK. He heads the Centre for Control of Chronic Conditions at PHFI which is a
joint initiative of four leading institutions (Public Health Foundation of India, London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and Emory University). This centre
conducts cutting edge research in the prevention of chronic diseases in India and the developing world.
His work spans from mechanistic research to understand the causes for increased propensity of cardiovascular
diseases (CVD) among Indians, to developing solutions for CVD through translational research and human
resource development. Prof. Prabhakaran is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, UK, Fellow of the
National Academy of Sciences, India, and an Adjunct Professor at the Emory University. He is member of
Executive Council of the International Society of Hypertension (ISH) and Chair of the International Society of
CVD Epidemiology and Prevention (ISCEP). He has received funding from NHLBI, Wellcome Trust, European
Commission and several other international and national funding bodies. He has mentored over 40 postdoctoral
and doctoral students so far. He has authored several chapters and over 375 scholarly papers with an
H index of 63. He is the lead editor of the Cardiovascular Respiratory and Renal Disease Volume of the latest
Disease Control Priorities Project.

Dr. Sandeep Bhalla

Dr. Bhalla, an Armed Forces Medical College, (AFMC) Pune alumni did his MD, DNB in Community Medicine/Public Health and awarded Fellowship in Leadership and Implementation Sciences to address NCDs in India (PH-Leader) jointly delivered by PHFI, Emory University and INSP Mexico under NIH grant. He worked with VMMC, Safdarjang Hospital, National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), DFID Technical Support unit RCSHA & IIHMR, Delhi and has vast experience of 16 years in Public health programs implementation and management. He made operational guidelines for Program managers for implementation of RTI/STI services in India along with team at NACO. He also made database of HIV/AIDS and STI Indian research studies which is collation of more than 8000 research studies.
Currently he is Director, Training in PHFI. He is leading the capacity building initiatives for Primary care physicians in chronic disease management and injuries (Diabetes, GDM, Thyroid, Cardiovascular, COPD, Hypertension and Disaster Management) along with dedicated team of 45 colleague's. More than 22000 physicians have been trained/enrolled since 2010 under these initiatives all across country. Coverage of these programs are in 32 States and UT's running in 93 cities In India with 503 districts. Two training programs evidence based diabetes management (CCEBDM) & gestational diabetes Mellitus (CCGDM) got recognition by International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and also been adopted by various State governments under National Health Mission (Gujarat, MP, Haryana, Kerala, West Bengal, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Assam, Tripura etc.). GDM and Thyroid courses have also got SAFES (South Asian Federation of Endocrine Societies) accreditation. Thyroid program has also got endorsement from Asia Oceania Thyroid Association (AOTA). BMJ India recognises Diabetes program as a finalist for the BMJ Awards India, 2014 in category of Excellence in Medical Education. These Programs also won PHD chambers award for Excellence in Skill Development in 2015. He is also assessor for National Accreditation Board of Hospitals, Quality Council of India. He has won various awards nationally and internationally for these programs like BMJ India award 2014 as finalist , ASSOCHAM award for skill development 2016-17 , DL Shah Platinum Award in Quality sector 2017, FICCI health care excellence award 2018, CII Award for best NGO/ Education 2018 and presented these programs at various forums locally as well as globally. These training programs have been selected consecutively by MOHFW, GOI as an innovative model of education in their National innovation summit held at Tirupati 2016, Indore 2017. He has around 35 publications and he has been instrumental in forging strategic alliances of PHFI with states, regional and global health networks and Institutions e.g. National Disaster Management authority (NDMA), Indian Red Cross Society, International Committee for Red Cross (ICRC), PHD Chambers, FICCI, International Diabetes Federation (IDF), Association of Health Care Providers (AHPI), Quality Council of India (QCI), Royal College Of Physicians (RCP) , American Heart Association(AHA), World Obesity Federation (WOF), XLRI and National health System Resource Centre (NHSRC) etc.

Dr. Pushkar Kumar

Dr. Kumar has done his MBBS from Sri Krishna Medical College, Muzaffarpur and MD in Pathology from Patna
Medical College, Patna.He has over 13 years of experience in the health sector and worked both in the
Government as well as private sector. He has served for more than 5 years as Lead Consultant in Maternal
Health Division of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and his job responsibilities included planning and
implementation of the maternal health programme, framing of checklists, undertaking regular supportive
supervision visits, planning capacity building of various stakeholders and framing of operational and technical
guidelines in consultation with the experts. He has worked on more than 25 policy and operational guidelines
of the Ministry in the area of Maternal Health and RMNCH+A. Prior to this, in his 3 ½ yrs stint at NACO as Sr.
Technical Officer, Blood Safety and Programme Officer (Quality Control), he was involved in Blood Safety
programme management at the National level and has worked extensively with the State Governments. Earlier
he has also managed the blood transfusion services as Registrar at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi.
Currently he is working with PHFI as a Sr. Public Health Specialist and has been coordinating the capacity
building initiatives for Primary Care Physicians in the field of chronic conditions. He is leading the Women’s
Health initiative for the PCPs as well as responsible for Government collaborations for these initiatives.

Dr. Arun P Jose

Dr. Arun Pulikkottil Jose completed his M.B.B.S. from Father Muller Medical College under Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Bangalore in 2010. He completed his M.D. in Community Medicine from BLDE University's Shri B. M. Patil Medical College, Bijapur in 2014.
Prior to his appointment at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), Dr. Jose worked for one and a half years as Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Medicine, Father Muller Medical College, Mangalore. He is currently working at PHFI as Program Manager for the Certificate Course in Management of Hypertension (CCMH) under the Centre for Chronic Conditions and Injuries (CCCI).
In the past Dr. Arun worked extensively in the field of immunization and MCH care. He has conducted various research projects in the field of immunization in urban slums and rural areas of Bijapur district, Karnataka and has numerous publications in national as well as international journals. He has completed the Advanced Course on Vaccinology from Christian Medical College, Vellore and has also acted as external monitor for Pulse Polio Programme under National Polio Surveillance Project (NPSP), World Health Organization. He completed his Post Graduate Diploma in Management of Reproductive and Child Health Programmes (PGDMRCH) conducted by Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH), Delhi.
Dr. Jose was awarded the Global Public Health Leader (PH- leader) fellowshipin leadership and implementation sciences at the Rollin’s School of Public Health, Emory University. The PH-Leader program is jointly delivered by PHFI, Emory University (Atlanta) and Instituto Nacional de SaludPública (Mexico), and supported by the National Institute of Health, USA.

Dr. Variyata Bagre

Dr. Variyata Bagre (PT) is a Post Graduate in Health and Hospital Management with specialization in Healthcare Information Technology from International Institute of Health Management Research, New Delhi and holds a Bachelor Degree in Physiotherapy from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University. She has been associated with Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) since 2013 and had worked in Certificate Course in Evidence Based Diabetes Management (CCEBDM) project of training PCPs in diabetes management, after that she had served 1 and half years in CCMTD project as a Program Associate. Presently she is working as Program Associate in CCMH project. In the past, she was involved in National Certification Committee for Polio Eradication Project and had prepared the National Document for Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication in INCLEN Trust International, New Delhi. Prior joining INCLEN she worked in World of Women (WOW) Corporation, where she did requirement gathering, data collection, training, prepared the software requirement specification document and did implementation of patient portal and physician portal. She also worked in National Institute of Health and Family Welfare as a business analyst on Health Management Information System (HMIS) project and has experience of software implementation (Vista) in Max Hospital, a project of Dell Services.

Dr. Anshika Sharma

Dr. Anshika Sharma has completed her Bachelors in Dental Surgery from Krishna Dental College, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. Later she completed her Masters in Public Health from the esteemed College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. During her studies at the University of Edinburgh she was actively involved as a volunteer in health promotion activities with social organizations like "Save the Child, Edinburgh" and "Life Care Edinburgh". She is working at PHFI as the Assistant Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator for the Certificate Course in Management of Hypertension (CCMH) under Centre for Chronic Condition and Injuries (CCCI).

Mr. Nikki Pandey

Mr. Nikki Pandey is a Post Graduate in Health and Hospital Management with specialization in Public Health from International Institute of Health Management Research, New Delhi and holds a Bachelor Degree in B. Pharmacy from Rajasthan University of Health Science (RUHS). He is working as Assistant Program Coordinator with Public Health Foundation of India in CCMH Program under CCCI. In the past, he was involved in ANCHUL Project by IIPH-D in collaboration with Govt. of Delhi Ministry of Health. Prior joining IIPH-D he worked as a Hospital Manager under State Health Society, Bihar (NRHM). He also worked with SHSRC, Raipur, Chhattisgarh under RSBY, State Nodal Agency.

Mr. Himanshu Kumar

Mr. Himanshu is working as Technical assistant in Certificate Course in Management of Hypertension. He has completed Diploma in Pharmacy from Baba Haridass College of Pharmacy and Technology. He completed his internship from the Pharmacy Department of Lok Nayak Hospital, Delhi. He is also pursuing B.Sc. in Applied Sciences from IGNOU.

Ms. Shruti C Nair

Program Assistant Certificate Course in Management of Hypertension Email: shruti.nair@phfi.org

Ms. Shruti C Nair has completed her Masters in HR & Marketing in 2015 from Gitarattan International Business School, Rohini which is affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi. As part of her curriculum she has done a 6 week project on “Recruitment & Selection” from SMC Insurance Brokers Pvt Ltd, Noida. She has also done a 2 month course in HR Generalist from SLA Consultants. Apart from this, she has an elementary level certificate of proficiency in French language & certificates of English language from British Council, Delhi as well. She is currently working as a Program Assistant in Certificate Course in Management of Hypertension.

Ms. Neena Bishnoi

Ms. Neena Bishnoi is a qualified Member of Institute of Cost and Works (Management) Accountants of India (i.e. ICWAI) and MBA Finance. With Over 22 Yrs. of experience in core finance and Accounts in different Corporate which includes Healthcare, Trading, E-Commerce, Construction.

Mr. Subhash Chand

Mr. Chand has completed his B.com and has also studied L.L.B. He has more than 18 years of experience in publication, construction & manufacture sector which includes 10 years in the development sector. He is
working as Finance Officer for Certificate Course in Management of Hypertension (CCMH) under Centre for Chronic Conditions and Injuries (CCCI). His work profile includes maintaining financial and accounting records, coordinating with staff, vendors and third parties for timely release of funds.